The old champion sat in the corner locker at the FedEx Forum late
Friday night, vanquished and spent. He performed his perfunctory media
obligations, answering in a low tone a few questions about one of the
most disappointing playoff ousters of his Hall of Fame career.

And then, Tim Duncan stood up, walked toward the door and into the most uncertain offseason of his life.

The slogan is plastered all over billboards and buildings and the broad side of the bars on Beale Street.
Believe Memphis!
One win away from a stunning first-round upset, brought nearer by a
bullying 104-86 victory in Game 4 on Monday night, it’s safe to say
Memphis will believe anything now.

The Spurs could tab a familiar name to fill a void in their front office.

Team officials have reached out to Danny Ferry to gauge his interest in
returning to the organization he left in 2005 to become the general
manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Ferry, who played the final three seasons of his career with the Spurs
and still maintains a house in San Antonio, retired after the 2002-03
campaign to join the team’s front office. He spent two seasons in middle
management under general manager R.C. Buford and president of
basketball operations Gregg Popovich before leaving in June 2005 to take
the Cleveland job.

A couple of quickie updates from what might be the first offseason in
NBA history to generate a GM carousel that seemingly never stops
spinning:

The Spurs, according to sources with knowledge of the team’s plans, are
lobbying Danny Ferry to come back to the organization where he began his
front-office career and hope to convince him to commit to rejoining the
organization in the coming days or weeks.

The San Antonio Spurs are Tim Duncan’s team. I don’t think anyone would
argue that fact. But Manu Ginobili is definitely the key to the Spurs
success for the past few years. As Duncan’s output declines slightly due
to age the Spurs have been leaning more and more on Ginobili to carry
the offensive load and spark the team defensively.

When the Hornets made a fourth-quarter run at the Spurs in Friday’s
game at the AT&T Center, slicing a double-digit lead to five
points, Manu Ginobili decided it was time to put away a team whose
collective resolve has been membrane-thin for weeks.